So many labels, so few specifics.
In this election, the assorted Democrats may not always be democrats and Liberals are not necessarily liberal. But their parties' vaguely similar and similarly vague platforms are all as patriotic as cherry varenyky. The Popular Democratic Party's call for Ukraine to take 'an honored place in the European Community' is matched by Rukh's 'return to Europe' plank. Not to mention the European Choice of Ukraine bloc, which wants a 'Unitary Ukraine in unitary Europe' and backs that call with a 'Forward into Europe!' cry.
The PDP's pledge to provide 'firm social guarantees' echoes the Social Democratic Party's promise of 'state support for the disabled and veterans' and similar slogans by at least five or six other parties.
Domestic manufacturers, farmers and young people also have plenty of friends among the candidates.
Hromada pledges not only to 'revive domestic manufacturing' but also to 'guarantee the protection of interests of domestic manufacturers.'
'Protection of domestic manufacturers ' is likewise a major goal of the Republican Christian Party. And 'stable credit and tariff policies oriented at the long-term interest of domestic manufacturers' is also a top priority for the SLOn bloc.
Agrarians support 'rural residents living respectably in the [Ukrainian] state' while the bloc of the Socialist and Peasant parties predicts that 'the village will save Ukraine if we save the village.' And the Party of Cultural, Economic and Social Progress proclaims that agricultural production is 'a top priority for Ukraine's economic development.'
And almost all the parties, from the Communists to the ultra-conservative National Front avow concern for the younger generation. 'Youth is the hope of the country and the family,' says Rukh's program. 'Let's give the young a chance,' says PDP's platform.
The lofty sentiments may never yield results, but then voters are unlikely to be misled by the cliches because few will ever read them.
'There is no serious evidence that people choose parties by comparing their programs,' said Mykhaylo Pohrebynsky, director of the Kyiv Center for Political Research and Conflict Studies.
'No voter in Ukraine reads party programs,' concurred Serhy Odarych of the Ukrainska Perspektyva think tank. In the case of the few parties whose platforms offer specifics, such ignorance spares the electorate from having to assess their credibility.
For instance, the opposition Hromada Party led by former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko is promising a six-fold increase in the minimum pension within a month of the election, alongside a 50-percent cut in the overall tax burden.
'Their program makes no sense from the economic point of view, but this is what people want to hear,' said one economist who asked not to be named.
Actually, most Ukrainian voters appear to want to hear only the parties' names before deciding which one to support. The Democratic Party of Ukraine has seen its support plummet from 9 percent in October to 2 percent this month even though it did not change a single word in its program. Political observers attribute the drop to the fact that the party joined an electoral bloc with a less attractive name than its own.
'It has seriously reduced its chances by rejecting 'democratic,' a good term,' said Pohrebynsky. The Liberal Party, which seeks a decentralized economy open to competition and foreign trade, has the opposite problem: its name also rings a bell with the voters, but it is the alarm bell warning of flippancy rather than the clarion call for change.
'The word 'liberal' for Ukrainians sounds more like 'libertine' than something associated with market reforms,' said Pohrebynsky.
By the same token, people tend to mistakenly place the liberal Forward Ukraine bloc led by Deputy Parliament Speaker Viktor Musiyaka and former Justice Minister Serhy Holovaty to the right of the moderately nationalist Rukh. 'People see the word 'Ukraine' in their name, and this is enough for them to think of the party as nationalist,' Pohrebynsky said.
Part of the problem is that voters who once might have paid attention have been turned off by the perpetual scandals and schisms that left Ukraine with no fewer than 50 mostly minute parties by the end of 1997. As the result, the percentage of Ukrainians who favor multi-party democracy has decreased from 36 percent in 1994 to less than 9 percent in 1997, according to Democratic Initiatives Foundation.
As parties have paled into insignificance, personalities have come to the fore. Another recent survey conducted by Socis Gallup showed that 60 percent of people give priority to the personality and professional experience of the candidate rather than the views he proclaims. 'Only 18 to 20 percent of respondents say they pay attention to the party and political platform the candidate represents,' said Socis Gallup expert Oleksandr Stehny. Party platforms are most useful to politicians who have used them to explain splits attributed by most outside observers to clashes of oversized egos and money disputes. Thus, when the initiators of recent splits in the Social Democratic Party, the Ukrainian Republican Party and the Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party all said they left because they disagreed over their parties' goals, few analysts were convinced.
For example, many newspapers and analysts said last year that the defection of a faction of the Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine to establish the Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party was caused by disagreement over the use of political donations rather than a debate on Christian ideals.
Party leaders continue to split hairs.
The Reforms and Order Party led by former Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Pynzenyk calls for widescale deregulation of the economy, radical cuts in income tax rates and support for private property rights.
Holovaty's Forward Ukraine bloc backs the same goals. Yet the two parties failed in their attempt to unite for this election, and with good reason according Serhy Teryokhin, another Reforms and Order leader.
'We and Forward Ukraine have a similar understanding of reforms, but a very different understanding of order,' he said. 'Our aim is to implement reforms that would make corruption impossible, while they want to fight it directly.'
The voters are not expected to notice the difference.
So many labels, so few specifics.
In this election, the assorted Democrats may not always be democrats and Liberals are not necessarily liberal. But their parties' vaguely similar and similarly vague platforms are all as patriotic as cherry varenyky. The Popular Democratic Party's call for Ukraine to take 'an honored place in the European Community' is matched by Rukh's 'return to Europe' plank. Not to mention the European Choice of Ukraine bloc, which wants a 'Unitary Ukraine in unitary Europe' and backs that call with a 'Forward into Europe!' cry.
The PDP's pledge to provide 'firm social guarantees' echoes the Social Democratic Party's promise of 'state support for the disabled and veterans' and similar slogans by at least five or six other parties.
Domestic manufacturers, farmers and young people also have plenty of friends among the candidates.
Hromada pledges not only to 'revive domestic manufacturing' but also to 'guarantee the protection of interests of domestic manufacturers.'
'Protection of domestic manufacturers ' is likewise a major goal of the Republican Christian Party. And 'stable credit and tariff policies oriented at the long-term interest of domestic manufacturers' is also a top priority for the SLOn bloc.
Agrarians support 'rural residents living respectably in the [Ukrainian] state' while the bloc of the Socialist and Peasant parties predicts that 'the village will save Ukraine if we save the village.' And the Party of Cultural, Economic and Social Progress proclaims that agricultural production is 'a top priority for Ukraine's economic development.'
And almost all the parties, from the Communists to the ultra-conservative National Front avow concern for the younger generation. 'Youth is the hope of the country and the family,' says Rukh's program. 'Let's give the young a chance,' says PDP's platform.
The lofty sentiments may never yield results, but then voters are unlikely to be misled by the cliches because few will ever read them.
'There is no serious evidence that people choose parties by comparing their programs,' said Mykhaylo Pohrebynsky, director of the Kyiv Center for Political Research and Conflict Studies.
'No voter in Ukraine reads party programs,' concurred Serhy Odarych of the Ukrainska Perspektyva think tank. In the case of the few parties whose platforms offer specifics, such ignorance spares the electorate from having to assess their credibility.
For instance, the opposition Hromada Party led by former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko is promising a six-fold increase in the minimum pension within a month of the election, alongside a 50-percent cut in the overall tax burden.
'Their program makes no sense from the economic point of view, but this is what people want to hear,' said one economist who asked not to be named.
Actually, most Ukrainian voters appear to want to hear only the parties' names before deciding which one to support. The Democratic Party of Ukraine has seen its support plummet from 9 percent in October to 2 percent this month even though it did not change a single word in its program. Political observers attribute the drop to the fact that the party joined an electoral bloc with a less attractive name than its own.
'It has seriously reduced its chances by rejecting 'democratic,' a good term,' said Pohrebynsky. The Liberal Party, which seeks a decentralized economy open to competition and foreign trade, has the opposite problem: its name also rings a bell with the voters, but it is the alarm bell warning of flippancy rather than the clarion call for change.
'The word 'liberal' for Ukrainians sounds more like 'libertine' than something associated with market reforms,' said Pohrebynsky.
By the same token, people tend to mistakenly place the liberal Forward Ukraine bloc led by Deputy Parliament Speaker Viktor Musiyaka and former Justice Minister Serhy Holovaty to the right of the moderately nationalist Rukh. 'People see the word 'Ukraine' in their name, and this is enough for them to think of the party as nationalist,' Pohrebynsky said.
Part of the problem is that voters who once might have paid attention have been turned off by the perpetual scandals and schisms that left Ukraine with no fewer than 50 mostly minute parties by the end of 1997. As the result, the percentage of Ukrainians who favor multi-party democracy has decreased from 36 percent in 1994 to less than 9 percent in 1997, according to Democratic Initiatives Foundation.
As parties have paled into insignificance, personalities have come to the fore. Another recent survey conducted by Socis Gallup showed that 60 percent of people give priority to the personality and professional experience of the candidate rather than the views he proclaims. 'Only 18 to 20 percent of respondents say they pay attention to the party and political platform the candidate represents,' said Socis Gallup expert Oleksandr Stehny. Party platforms are most useful to politicians who have used them to explain splits attributed by most outside observers to clashes of oversized egos and money disputes. Thus, when the initiators of recent splits in the Social Democratic Party, the Ukrainian Republican Party and the Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party all said they left because they disagreed over their parties' goals, few analysts were convinced.
For example, many newspapers and analysts said last year that the defection of a faction of the Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine to establish the Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party was caused by disagreement over the use of political donations rather than a debate on Christian ideals.
Party leaders continue to split hairs.
The Reforms and Order Party led by former Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Pynzenyk calls for widescale deregulation of the economy, radical cuts in income tax rates and support for private property rights.
Holovaty's Forward Ukraine bloc backs the same goals. Yet the two parties failed in their attempt to unite for this election, and with good reason according Serhy Teryokhin, another Reforms and Order leader.
'We and Forward Ukraine have a similar understanding of reforms, but a very different understanding of order,' he said. 'Our aim is to implement reforms that would make corruption impossible, while they want to fight it directly.'
The voters are not expected to notice the difference.
